


I'll follow your lead

by jesterandbeau



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Caleb Widogast Deserves Nice Things, Dancing, Fluff, M/M, Not Beta Read, POV Mollymauk Tealeaf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 00:14:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21858094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jesterandbeau/pseuds/jesterandbeau
Summary: It's their last night in Hupperdook, Jester is playing the piano again and Caleb asks Mollymauk to dance with him.
Relationships: Mollymauk Tealeaf/Caleb Widogast
Comments: 5
Kudos: 72





	I'll follow your lead

**Author's Note:**

> I started this at around one AM and finished it at four. It's my first work in this fandom and it's also deeply self indulgent, but I hope y'all like it!

Things were unbelievably nice.  
Sometimes, right before falling asleep, Molly wondered if he was actually lying somewhere else, trapped in a fever dream. It felt more feasible than to think he was part of the Mighty Nein, traveling through strange roads and slaying stranger monsters, eating well enough not to hear his stomach rumble most nights. And it definitely felt more feasible than Hupperdook.  
Hupperdook was just something else at night. He felt like he could never tire of spinning around and watching sparks of all colors fly around him, of seeing everything get covered in flower petals until just before sunrise. Of seeing the looks of wonder in his friends' faces. Oh, his friends, they were something else, too.  
He watched with unmasked fascination as Jester sat at the piano for the second time that night. One would have thought she'd never be able to do it again, after what happened the first time, if only one didn't know her. Molly himself was still not sure how it had happened, but he was happy to watch her pluck at the keys with determination, and even happier to hear a melody slowly come to life. It was cheerful and fast-paced, fitting for both her and a tavern, and a few patrons stood up, some more drunkenly than the others, to clap or move along.  
“Mr. Mollymauk,” Caleb said, and he smiled before he could even think about it, “do you dance?”  
Molly was not one to lose his words. He prided himself on his bullshit, and he prided himself on doing even the things he was horribly bad at and still laughing in the end, and still, he didn't know what to say.  
Yes, he danced. When he was tipsy enough, or when he was happy enough, he would spin around and pretend he knew what he was doing before inevitably falling or hitting a person or piece of furniture. And he would tell himself that was the fun of it, and he would try not to be angry at how his body seemed to respond so well to battle, but never enough to beauty.  
Yes, he danced, but he was not sure how to tell Caleb that it made him think way too much, and that he didn't like that. It didn't fit Mollymauk Tealeaf. Someone like him, like the persona he had carefully crafted, should love to dance. And someone like him certainly didn't overthink.  
“Why, Mr. Caleb, is that an invitation?” He asked anyway.   
Caleb didn't smile back at him. His smiles were few and far between, saved for moments of triumph and conversations with Nott, and Molly couldn't resent him. Caleb didn't smile back at him, and still, there was something in his voice that made Molly's tail swish excitedly behind him.  
“It seems that Jester is expecting it. Look, she has lost her pace again staring at you.”  
He grinned and waved at Jester, who laughed as she played her song. Something in him seemed to recognize it, though he had never heard that particular tune. He downed his drink.  
“Well, I'll follow your lead.”  
Caleb seemed startled as Molly got up.  
“My lead?”  
He let his smile die down a little, from a grin to something more private, as he offered Caleb his hand.  
“Unless you don't feel like it.”  
The seconds felt like hours as Caleb looked down at his own drink and then at Molly's palm before standing up and taking it. As he did, Molly watched his world grow the slightest bit brighter.  
It was no secret that he enjoyed the Nein's company. He liked people in general, but he liked those who longed for something the most, for they were the most likely to abandon prudence and do whatever they wanted. And there was plenty of longing between all of them.  
Jester longed to know who her father was, but she also longed for home, as contradictory as it seemed. Beauregard longed for approval, but she also longed for knowledge and independence. Yasha longed for her lost memories and for her lost love. And Caleb longed, too, though he didn't know what for. Some days, it felt like he never would. Most days, it didn't feel like it matter. But then he would get that glossy look in his eye, and Molly could feel deep down in his gut that he would follow him anywhere if he could help him find what he so desperately needed. And that, if he couldn't, then he would find a way to make Caleb's shoulder feel a little lighter.  
And so he let Caleb lead him to the middle of the tavern, though he knew he would have never gone there on his own. He touched Caleb's shoulders and he looked at his feet, trying to follow as best as he could.  
“Do you want to go back?”   
He hadn't expected to hear those words so soon. Was he doing such a bad job?  
“Oh, but we only just got started!”  
“Mollymauk, you are uncomfortable,” Caleb said, as matter-of-factly as always, and for once Molly felt like just going along with the truth. “If you wish to go back, then we can do that. We can drink more. You can finish that story about the giant crab in the Coast.”  
It was harder to keep up with Caleb's feet when they were talking. It was even harder when Caleb's light grip on his waist became more present, reassuringly so.  
“I didn't think you were listening to that one.”  
“I don't go deaf when I'm casting, only when I see through Frumpkin's eyes,” Caleb said, not seeming to catch the true meaning of what Molly had said. It seemed silly that he had even worried about it, even though a second ago he still did. “Now tell me. Do you want to go back?”  
Molly thought for a second, and then he shook his head.  
“I want you to teach me.”  
“Oh.”  
For a moment, he wondered if he had startled Caleb. And then they began to move slower, and Caleb's grip on him was light again.   
“ _Ja_. Of course,” he nodded. “Give me your hand.”  
Molly nodded, and he didn't know why he was nervous, but his tail curled around his legs for a moment, almost making him trip.  
He had expected Caleb to stretch their arms into a traditional position, but he held them close to their bodies instead. It made sense, considering the amount of people around them, but it also felt foreign. Molly was unsure of what to expect, and he usually thrived like that, but all he could think about was the hand that clasped his own, and he felt stupid, but he also felt good. Unnervingly good.  
“Follow me. _Ein, zwei, drei_ ,” he recognized the soft counting from the moments in which Caleb was tasked with divvying up their coin. “Now come back. _Ein, zwei, drei._ ”  
One, two, three. Their feet moved together clumsily at first, and then with more confidence. Caleb looked up at him and nodded to himself.  
“ _Gut_ ,” he said, and Molly's heart went cold with just that one word. It was all horribly silly, and he couldn't stop himself from smiling. “Now link your arm with mine. That's how they're doing it, see?”  
Molly didn't want to look away from Caleb, but he did. All around him, couples spun together, arm on arm, with increasing speed. And then they would change arms and laugh as they reversed their motions, sometimes exchanging partners along the way.   
He immediately missed Caleb's hand on his waist. Tieflings thrived on heat, after all, and Caleb was so warm, as if his fire was within him at all times, only waiting for the right moment to come out. It was nothing but that, he decided as he tentatively stepped forward.  
“It's the same thing, almost,” he felt Caleb's eyes on him. “But now we have four steps. Look: _ein, zwei, drei, vier_. Let go, then come back. _Ein, zwei, drei, vier_.”  
He nodded as he observed the couples around them.  
“Okay. I have no idea how to do this.”  
“You're a fast learner,” Caleb said, and all the torches in the room seemed to be reflected in his bright blue eyes.  
“Oh, yes, I am,” Molly grinned. “Let's go.”  
He counted four steps, and then he let go, looking at Caleb with wide eyes until their arms found each other again. Four more steps went by, and he thought he understood it a little bit better. Four more, and maybe he didn't, but he liked it anyway.  
Their pace became faster. He thought he might have seen Caleb smile for a second, and he had to look strictly at his feet after that. The movement made his hair bounce back, and the air felt nice against his face. Caleb's arm felt nice around his own.  
At some point, Jester had gotten up from the piano, and she passed by them in a flurry of blue as someone spun her around. Someone whose height could only belong to Beauregard. Truly, she could charm anyone into following her. His grin grew even bigger, and he let himself revel in the bliss of it all.  
“You look happy,” Caleb broke the silence between them, and Molly let himself look at him. He looked beautifully flushed under the yellow light.  
“I feel spectacular.”  
Caleb suddenly let go after that, and Molly felt confused for a moment, but then he felt a warm hand on his own. It was hard to concentrate on the world around them, to bring himself not to stare.  
He was in love with Caleb, wasn't he?  
He didn't have time to consider it, because suddenly he was spinning, and suddenly they were close, and by the look on Caleb's face they were way closer than he had planned. And then they laughed. They laughed, and Caleb's laugh was the only sound that mattered in that very moment. Caleb's eyes were small and his nose was crinkled up and his smile was so wonderful that Molly wished he could live in that moment forever.  
Eventually, though, they got out of breath. They laughter faded as they panted for air, and Molly realized just how tired he was. He felt thankful for Caleb's arms around him, lending him balance, and at the same time he wondered when that had happened. Probably around the time their foreheads had come together, or maybe once he had wrapped his own arms around Caleb's neck. His face was so hot he was sure Caleb could feel it.  
“I never knew you were such a good teacher,” he smiled, trying his hardest to put his façade back up.  
“I was sure you'd be a good student, my friend” Caleb said, eyes still soft and bright, and though Molly's heart was racing just from that, something inside him still yearned for more.  
Friendship was good. Caleb's friendship was more than good; it was rare and precious and he wanted to keep it for as long as possible. And, still, that night had allowed his mind to roam freely in places he had never let it visit before. He wondered what it would feel like to tangle his hands on Caleb's auburn hair, and he shivered from imagining his lips against his own.  
Molly still knew, though, why he had never let his mind go there. He wanted it, yes, he wanted it too much for his own good, but he knew Caleb, and he knew himself. Neither of them were ready for anything like that, were they?  
He wouldn't lie to himself; though he was an exceptionally good liar, he couldn't do it when it came to that. What he felt was enough to light up a thousand fires, to keep him smiling for a lifetime. And it was entirely his own. He knew nothing about his past selves, but he knew they hadn't felt anything like that. He would have crawled out of any grave, no matter how deep, if anything like this had resided in his heart before. And that was exactly why he knew he could wait.  
“I think it's time to leave,” Caleb said against his ear. The music had stopped, and the couples seemed to be on their way back to their tables. “The sun will rise soon.”  
He took a moment to memorize the way their bodies fit together, and just how beautiful Caleb looked up close, before smiling.  
“Lead the way, dear.”


End file.
